Amir Khan: Honorio Banario is at his peak

Singaporean mixed martial arts star Amir Khan, 23, will have his work cut out for him in the co-main event of “ONE: Beyond the Horizon” on September 8, 2018 at the Baoshan Arena in Shanghai, China. He will battle it out with Filipino fighter Honorio “The Rock” Banario, 28, in the lightweight division.

“He is a tough competitor and recently has become a very well-rounded fighter.” Khan said of Banario. “I believe he is at his peak now.”

Banario is a former ONE Featherweight World Champion. He has moved to the lightweight division of ONE Championship and is now riding a five-bout winning streak.

ONE Championship’s lightweight division is filled with top-rank athletes all chomping at the bit to get their hands on reigning ONE Lightweight World Champion Martin “The Situ-Asian” Nguyen, 29, of Australia and Vietnam. Among them are former champions like Shinya “Tobikan Judan” Aoki, 35, of Japan and Eduard “Landslide” Folayang, 34, of the Philippines as well as top-tier contenders like Ev “E.T.” Ting, 29, of New Zealand and Malaysia and Timofey Nastyukhin, 28, of Russia.

While Banario is on the brink of contention with five-straight wins, Khan finds himself on the outside looking in. On February 23, 2018, the Singaporean contender saw his six-match winning streak get snapped by Nastyukhin, displacing the former from the list of top contenders in ONE Championship’s lightweight division.

In Khan’s most recent bout, which was on May 18, 2018, he had a bounce-back win in his hometown over Sung Jong Lee, 32, of South Korea. The Singaporean contender is now looking to start a new winning streak and make his way back to the upper echelon of the lightweight division by defeating Banario at “ONE: Beyond the Horizon.”

Meanwhile, watch one of Banario’s previous ONE Championship bouts here: